1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic information utilization promotion system designed to, promote further utilization of others' copyrighted electronic information, including manipulations by a computer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many apparatuses and methods of managing the amount of software for preventing illegal use of electronic information has been conventionally known. A system which permits the use of software storage media within the range of predetermined provision information is described in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 6-324858, for example. This system uses e.g., an IC card as a management medium and permits the use of software only when provision information written there is satisfied.
According to the officially publicized system, illegal use of software can be prevented without impairing spatial convenience with which desired software can be executed by using any of remote computers of the same type.
Also, a method of preventing illegal copying is known in electronic publishing. For example, a method of protecting electronically published documents is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,074. According to this method, for a user's request for a document to a document server, an authentication server authenticates the user and encrypts the requested document using a user's identification number before sending it to the user, and the user decrypts the sent document for utilization.
Also, an information providing system is described in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 7-74744. In this system, electronic information is encrypted before being broadcast to an unspecific number of users over communication networks and broadcasting networks, the electronic information and indexes thereof are accumulated in user terminal equipment, only required electronic information is decrypted as requested by the users, and a charge is levied only for the decrypted electronic information.
However, the above-mentioned conventional systems have been problematic in that although right processing for so-called use rights on software use and viewing of electronic documents and images can be performed, the right processing has been too insufficient to further distribute copyrighted electronic information as a new copyrighted material by utilizing (manipulating) it.
By the way, in a present right processing system to perform such right processing for utilization rights, when information to be utilized is obtained through Internet, for example, a charge is generally levied for the utilization right. In this system, a fee is charged even in the case where the information has been utilized (manipulated) with an unsatisfactory result, resulting in discouraging utilization of electronic information.
Such right processing for utilization rights entails a single negotiation with the author of electronic information to be utilized for right processing, bringing about tremendous efforts particularly when a plurality of pieces of electronic information are utilized. This deters further promotion of utilization of electronic information.